Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : Al Mamoon Heads Field in Mervyn LeRoy ‘Cap

Al Mamoon, unbeaten in his only two races this year and an in-the-money finisher in 16 of his 22 lifetime starts, heads a field of eight entered in Sunday’s $150,000-added Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood Park.

The 5-year-old chestnut grandson of Secretariat should have an easier time in the Grade II event this time than he had a year ago when Precisionist, Greinton and My Habitony all beat him to the wire. Al Mamoon finished 6 3/4 lengths behind the winner.

Neither Precisionist nor Greinton is entered in this year’s Mervyn LeRoy, both instead apparently being pointed toward the $300,000-added Californian on June 1. All the same, the race will not be handed to Al Mamoon and jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who are high-weighted at 120 pounds.

Also entered in the mile event on the main course are the following:

--Skywalker, with Laffit Pincay aboard and carrying 117 pounds. The dark bay colt has finished in the money in five of eight lifetime starts but was a weak third behind Encolure last time out.

--Right Con and Fast Account, coupled in the wagering and being ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye and Gary Stevens, respectively. Both carry 116. Fast Account is coming off a win in the March 26 El Monte Handicap, but Right Con has not won since taking the San Fernando Handicap on Jan. 19.

--Encolure, with Jack Kaenel up and carrying 114. The Claiborne Farm colt was third behind Precisionist and Greinton in the San Bernardino Handicap on April 13.

--Virginia Privateer, with Bill Shoemaker handling the reins, will carry 113 pounds while making his first start of the season.

--Sabona, with Chris McCarron up and carrying 113 pounds, is making only his sixth lifetime start, the English-bred colt having won last time out in his American debut.

--Innamorato, with Frank Olivares aboard, is the lightweight at 112 pounds but also is one of the main threats. He won last year’s Native Diver Handicap over the same track and distance.

The attention, however, is being focused on Al Mamoon, who finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Aqueduct last November before being moved up to second on the disqualification of Palace Music.

Valenzuela, for one, likes his mount’s chances.

“He’s a super-nice horse,” the jockey said Friday at Hollywood Park. “He ran second last year in the Breeders’ Cup through a disqualification, but he probably should have been second. He broke from the 14th post. He ran a very good race that day. I watched the race from the jocks’ room. Angel Cordero rode him that day.

“He came back really strong this year. He relaxed fine in his last race. He went the first quarter in 24 and then finished really strong, 36 and change. He seems like he’s doing everything right this year.

“He’s a horse that if he gets on the lead he relaxes fine, and when you ask him he gives it all his best.’

Trained by Bobby Frankel, Al Mamoon’s two starts at Santa Anita this year have both produced victories. He won an allowance race, then came back to win the Hill Rise Handicap over Hail Bold King and Palace Music.

Notes Today’s Hollywood Park program includes two minor stakes races. Chris McCarron will be aboard Sovereign Don in the $60,000-added Debonair Stakes, taking on six other 3-year-olds. The Silver Spoon Handicap, with the same size purse, has attracted a field of five, headed by Take My Picture, winner of her last three in a row. . . . Protect Yourself, owned by Fred Hooper and trained by Ross Fenstermaker, was to have run in the Mervyn LeRoy but will miss the race due to a popped right splint. The 4-year-old colt will be out for about six weeks, according to Fenstermaker, who said he had decided to inject needles in the foreleg, a process called firing , when an inflammation did not respond to treatment. . . . Another nominee, the unbeaten Phone Trick, also will skip the race, trainer Dick Mandella holding other plans for the top sprinter of the Santa Anita meeting.

The Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Assn. board of directors has voted to recommend that its members support the Hollywood Park meeting while contract talks continue. Some owners and trainers had been withholding horses while awaiting an agreement between the HBPA and the track. . . . Fran’s Valentine, who worked six furlongs in 1:15 1/5 Thursday, will make her 1986 Hollywood Park debut in the $75,000-added Hawthorne Handicap on May 31, according to trainer Joe Manzi. . . . Hegemony, the fastest turf miler at the last spring-summer meeting, is back in training after being sidelined by a freak injury. Trainer Gary Jones said a shoe came loose and drove itself up into the bay’s hoof while Hegemony was running at Santa Anita.